Icing
by Lady aracne
Summary: Written for the "Near Brothers Challenge at NFA" Tony needs a co-conspirator, who better than McGee! Humor, established TIVA, enjoy!


Icing

"Come on Probie, it's a matter of life and death."

"_But Tony, you know I'm no good at that."_

"I don't care. You can read, can't you?"

"_Of course I can read Tony, but …"_

"You see, you can help. You read and I'll follow the instructions. You can't let me do this alone Probie."

"_But, why me Tony? I am sure Abby will be more than happy to help you, or Cynthia."_

"Are you kidding? They'll laugh at me and then run to tell Ziva about it. And that's the last thing I want. You have to help me McGee."

"_I'm sure I'm going to regret this in the morning Tony, but okay, I'llbe at your place in half an hour."_

"Wonderful Probie, I'll have everything ready, see you later."

The line went dead.

Tim grabbed his car keys and started for the door. He couldn't help but smile because it was surely going to be an interesting evening; not at all what you would imagine when thinking about spending an afternoon with Tony DiNozzo. Laughing to himself he closed his apartment door behind him.

A little more than thirty minutes later, Tim arrived at Tony's apartment.

Tony opened the door wearing a rather colorful apron. It was bright red, resembling the front part of a car. Of a Ferrari, to be exact because there was no mistaking the black horse inside the yellow shield.

"You forgot to wear your Hawaiian shirt Tony" Tim snickered.

"Stop talking and come in, we have work to do."

Tim followed Tony into the mid-size kitchen, already regretting his involvement in his friend's latest project; ever since Tony and Ziva had started dating, several months earlier, Tony had beens trying to impress the Israeli beauty with all sorts of surprises. In itself this was a nice thing to do. The only problem was that Tony frequently chose him as co-conspirator.

The kitchen was cluttered with bowls, packages of flour and sugar, measuring cups, butter and several egg boxes.

"But Tony, we are making one cake, not one dozen of them!" Tim said looking at the amount of ingredients distributed over every counter.

"Better safe than sorry Probie."

Tony smiled like a Cheshire cat as he handed Tim a spare apron. This one depicted the front of a yellow Camaro.

Tim rolled his eyes up and put the apron on.

"Okay, now what Tony."

"Here, you read the recipe." Tony said handing Tim an old cook book, he opened it and his eyes went wide.

"Tony! This is in Spanish, I can't read Spanish!"

"My nanny was Mexican, she gave that book to me when I was a kid, and it is the only one I have Probie. So, you read and I translate McGee. It's not that hard" Tony said nonchalantly turning around to get a big bag of flour.

"I knew I was going to regret saying yes." Tim mumbled mostly to himself. He could half guess what the battered pages said; maybe they would manage to bake something edible in the end, at least, that's what he hoped.

Tim started reading the ingredients list with a broken accent, while Tony gathered everything.

"Tony, this is insane, let's just go to the bakery and get Ziva a real cake."

"Stop whining Probie-san, and repeat that last part. Was it two or three cups of sugar?"

Tim sighed.

"Three, at least the numbers I understand "

Tony placed a very big plastic bowl over the kitchen table and proceeded to fill a coffee cup with sugar from a bag.

"Okay, three cups. Then?"

"Six ... I think eggs, it says _completos_ right next to _huevos._" Tim said slowly.

"Yeah, complete eggs? Why would you put the whole thing is beyond me, but …"

Tony placed the eggs , eggshells and all into the bowl.

"Are you sure Tony?"

"Of course Mc Doubtful , keep on reading or we are not going to finish this on time."

Tim blanched, Tony had made plans for something, and he hadn't told him yet.

"On time? On time for what exactly Tony?"

Tony grinned widely, stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon.

"Ziva invited Abby shopping and then they are coming here, I told them we would have a surprise waiting for them, I also invited the Boss and Ducky to celebrate Ziva's birthday, they will be here in about three hours."

"Are you insane? There is no way we can have a party ready in three hours!" Tim almost yelled, helping Tony add fours cups of flour to the strange looking batter revolving inside the bowl. "We have to hurry Tony!"

"Don't get hysterical McGee, and start the oven, I seem to remember you have to preheat it."

Tim looked at the oven in panic, the grades were set in Fahrenheit degrees, as all ovens were, but the recipe called for Centigrade, and for the life of him he couldn't remember the conversion. If only he had remembered to bring his laptop.

He turned the thing on anyway carefully turning the dial to what he thought would be a mild temperature.

"Done! Now what?" Tim asked turning around.

Tony was busy adding chocolate chips to the mixture, which by now looked positively disgusting.

"Get me that cake mold from over there." He said pointing toward a kitchen shelf, where several molds where piled one on top of the other, Tim got a large rectangular one and placed it over the table, Tony proceeded to pour the mixture into the mold managing to spill quite a bit of it on to the table and the floor at the same time.

"Tony you're making a mess!" Tim said rushing to help Tony with the pouring.

In one second everything turned into a total disaster Tim slipped on the spilled batter and in an effort not to fall he grabbed on to Tony who taken by surprise took a step back slipping himself.

The cake mold flew through the air landing half way to the dinning room, which was next to the kitchen, leaving a trail of the sticky substance everywhere, Tim crashed onto the kitchen table bringing down 3 boxes full of fresh eggs and an open package of sugar over his head.

Tony hit the counter behind him sending the blender, his coffee maker and a dozen cutting knives to the floor with a thundering noise.

When everything sopped moving they were both sitting on the floor in the middle of the messiest scene in the world.

"McGee, I am going to kill you!" Tony growled.

"It was an accident Tony, I slipped and it was because you spilled all the batter to the floor"

"I.. well yes… but" Tony mumbled trying to stand and slipping back again.

"What are we going to do Probie! Everyone will be here in less than 2 hours!"

Tim looked at Tony's face, he was almost in tears. True Tony could be a real pain in the neck, but he was his friend, more like a big annoying brother but who was always there when you needed him.

Tim knew what to do.

"Calm down Tony, you go and get yourself cleaned up. I'll take care of everything."

"But…"

"Go! We haven't got a lot of time." Tim added searching for his cell phone.

One hour and forty-fuve minutes later the door bell rang, Tony wearing his best and smiling from ear to ear opened the door.

"Happy Birthday Sweet cheeks!" He chanted trapping Ziva in a big hug.

"Thank you Tony!" she said returning the hug and kissing him at the same time, while behind her Abby jumped up and down excitedly.

Ducky and Gibbs arrived minutes later to see Tony's apartment sparkling clean. The dinning room table looked incredibly elegant covered in a soft green tablecloth with matching dinner set, two crystal candlesticks with pale green candles flanked the most beautiful birthday cake they had ever seen, delicious smells came from the kitchen where Tim was shaking hands with a very French-looking thin man.

"Thank you very much Jean Claude, you are a life saver."

"It is always a pleasure Mr. Gemcity, the cleaning crew will return in the morning to take care of everything, you don't have to worry about anything, oh and Marcel with be your waiter for the night."

"Wonderful as always, send your bill as usual and thank you very much again".

The man bowed slightly and started to leave.

After closing the door behind the caterer's back Tim picked through the kitchen door, Tony looked beyond happy hand in hand with Ziva, Gibbs and Ducky appeared to be having a good conversation and Abby, looking as gorgeous as ever, stood eyeinf the cake. He smiled as Tony caught his eye and mouthed a silent "Thank you Probie".

He nodded and stepped into the dinning room to join the party.

El Fin.

Final del formularioEeEE


End file.
